Guns N' Roses guitarist DJ Ashba has a new gig, and no, he’s not leaving GNR or Sixx: A.M., his other band. He’s been named the celebrity spokesman for BullyVille.com.
It’s a cause close to his heart, as he endured a rough upbringing being
bullied not by his peers but by his father. Ashba, 39, became involved
in this initiative since he lives next door to the site’s founder in Las
Vegas and he appreciates the fact that it creates almost a safe haven
and offers a supportive resource for kids, something he did not have
growing up.

Calling BullyVille “a brilliant site,” Ashba pointed out to Noisecreep that “it’s a place to go where you know you’re not alone, and because I
know in that situation I always felt like it was like this big fear.
Like I was afraid and embarrassed to tell anybody. And you can’t be.
This is a serious thing. I hope it just brings massive awareness out
there to tons of kids.”

As part of his spokesman duties, he will hit the road to talk about
the issue of bullying. “I’m planning on getting on the Gibson Tour bus,
and hitting up a bunch of schools for BullyVille, and just doing
whatever I can to bring awareness to it because I had to live with this
just incredible amount of pain my whole life, and I had to figure it out
on my own,” he said. “I didn’t have anybody that I looked up to or
anything that had the same situations [as me]. That’s kind of the point
of BullyVille where you look up to this celebrity and you realize he has
the same issues I do, but look where he made it. So it hopefully gives
kids hope.”

Ashba shared some painful details of his upbringing, revealing, “I
was born into a very abusive situation where my dad was an angry man.
And so I kind of lived with this thing for my whole life.”

He continued, “The one thing people don’t understand is if you’re
born into that situation, the one thing you don’t really realize or the
one thing you realize is you start seeing other kids with normal lives,
and moms and dads that actually love them. And my mom loved me to death,
but you know it kind of carries over, and you start feeling like a
loner kind of and you can’t really relate to anybody else. You have a
very different outlook on life … it kind of carries onward into school.”

That’s why Ashba is perfect for this gig. He’s been there. He’s endured it. He knows.

Ashba revealed that he doesn’t hate his father and is incredibly
close with his mother at this point, so he is proof that things can and
do get better. It is beyond admirable that he is using his experience to
help other kids, so they don’t have to go through the same thing.